As a new owner of a Sony Reader Pocket Edition keen to add some books to my device I'm struck by the absurdity of e-book prices in the UK.

For example a book like "The Hand That First Held Mine" by Maggie O'Farell costs £11.04 in EPUB format from WhSmith which is exactly the same price as the hardback version, and yet there are no printing costs and the DRM means I can't loan it or sell it on.

Contrast this with say Waterstones who charge £9.09 for the book, but don't offer an ebook version and of course our good friend Amazon charging £8.48.

Never fear I thought pop across to Books On Board where I can pay in dollars, no such luck 'no format available for this title in your country'

I already have friends who think that ebooks are a great idea until they find out they cost more at which point they generally swear and lose interest!

I have no issues with paying for what I consume, and no issues with DRM, but for f's sake make it worth my while to be honest!

Yes I totally agree with you . I am shocked and dismayed at the pricing of Ebooks . I know how much the discounting is from Publishers to book shops as I work in one . I think the publishers are exploiting us the buyers . I have heard that some publishers are trying to be fair and charge a decent rate for their ebooks at around £ 5.99 for a novel . Other ones like Routledge which is academic are charging the full hbk price for an ebook of around £80.00 . No one in their right minds would pay that much for a digital copy excep the institutions and Libraries .

In the UK, ebooks have VAT on them, real books don't. So anything that you would save in printing/distribution costs gets stolen by the government. If you have a friend in America, get them to buy your ebooks.

Prices vary from book to book and site to site. Just as well I check some of the UK sites when I'm looking to buy. For example I bought The Infinities by John Banville at Waterstones for 6.39GBP which is about $9.25USD and far cheaper than what was being asked by any US site.

Thanks for all your replies, I suspect the real answer is 'if you can afford £159 - £259 for an ebook reader you shouldn't quibble about paying us through the nose for an ebook!'

mr ploppy is right about VAT and I tend to avoid UK sites.

I think my real beef is that if I want a normal book I just pop onto Amazon and go, I don't usually need to check whether they have a good price or not. For ebooks, I need to check three or four different permutations, UK/US £/$ before buying.

One of the great features of the iTunes store is it just works and it is what it is.

^^I'd recommend checking out some of the indie authors/publishers. They're usually pretty inexpensive, and sometimes free. Of course, a lot of the stuff on offer from the indies just ain't very good - but then again, the major publishers are no innocents in that respect, either. At least you're not going to feel so ripped-off by a duff indie book.

I think my real beef is that if I want a normal book I just pop onto Amazon and go, I don't usually need to check whether they have a good price or not. For ebooks, I need to check three or four different permutations, UK/US £/$ before buying.

You might want to try using Inkmesh.com or ebooks.addall.com when looking.